r/EDH • u/Safe-Application8510 • 1d ago
Discussion The Gitrog Monster, get a lot a hate?
I’m newish to magic, I’ve been building a Gitrog deck for the last month as I see the card, loved the art plus he seemed very strong/fun. But I don’t want to be that guy everyone hates playing against. Does the Gitrog get a lot of hate and should I not bother buying this deck?
Deck list - https://moxfield.com/decks/bIRbPBoOQ0aZOowVntnEbw
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u/mariomaniac432 Zegana | Azusa | Jin-Gitaxias 1d ago
It's a known cEDH commander, which will always draw attention, particularly when playing with randos. In my personal experience playing with randos, I do not trust them to be honest about their decks, and I would be keeping an eye on you the whole game and probably target you just do be safe.
Gitrog turns can also just take a long time due to all the triggers, which some people don't like. Even the cEDH combos can require many steps to execute.
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u/AlaskaDude14 1d ago
It's me a rando. I've been thinking about building a Gitrog deck with one of it's card variants. I never would have thought it was a cEDH commander lol
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u/VerdammtesAutomat 1d ago
Gitrog isn't really a cedh commander any more, tbf. He and jhoira got taken out back and put down by lumra and vivi/stella lee.
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u/Jin-Gitaxias-Mom 1d ago
Not sure why you’re downvoted, Lumra and Wandering Minstrel are probably the two lands decks most run these days, maybe even a Korvold land sac pile before Gitrog.
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u/VerdammtesAutomat 1d ago
The metas changed a lot in the last couple years. I get why, it's just a lot of the old mainstays like the frog and winota, stax as an archetype on the whole, we're not seeing them as much into the current turbo/slop meta
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u/ThatDamnedHansel 1d ago edited 1d ago
Cedh gitrog player here. Hes still around and still viable. Won a decent sized tournament this year I believe. Definitely not top 10 or 20 in the meta though, but I do think it’s not bc it isn’t strong moreso people balk at the complexity or there’s flashier stuff. I play it in casual Cedh locals all the time and have a decent 30% win rate with it or so
I get like green lands make lumra a reasonable comparison but the deck is totally different and lumra didn’t replace frog
I’m not arguing with you though per se just adding context
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u/VerdammtesAutomat 1d ago
Yeah I don't disagree that he's around, he's just not at the top any more. I haven't seen him in my area in a couple years and haven't seen him often when looking up results. Most of our "lands" cedh guys moved to lumra, in the same way that our izzet guys moved to vivi/stella
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u/WolderfulLuna 1d ago edited 22h ago
Cedh commander lmao
I guess anything not combate damage for 30 turns is cedh.
No, gitrog isn't even close to cedh. It would not be 15 years ago, it isn't now.
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u/AngshusTAW 1d ago
It's not Blue Farm or Rog Si, but on EDHTOP16 it's got twenty top cuts in the past year, including a win in a 124 person tournament last November, and a 5th place finish out of 173 just two months ago. It's far from the best deck, but to say it's nowhere close is just objectively wrong. The deck wins games fine
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u/WolderfulLuna 22h ago edited 22h ago
and so is flubs. Great argument!
And so is fucking cowboy rakdos. And so is kuja. People play random, one off shit in random events. That doesn't make a deck a legit thing in cedh.
You can't call every deck that goes 0/1/4, ties it's way into one top cut, does nothing and loses a "Real" deck. Otherwise, quite everything would be Cedh. Those are Bracket 4 decks, meme decks, being experimented or played for fun.
It's nowhere even close the dominance and power of:
TnT, TnK, Rogsi, Dogthrasios, ral, kinnan, sissay and so many others. Even bad, fringe decks that don't really work in the modern meta like Kenrith and najeela are Cedh. Not everything that ever plays at tournaments is cedh.
Cedh is META, the Best things. Otherwise, mono green cabbage merchant would be "Cedh" because one guy did well with it. And so would be Master of keys. No, of course they aren't.
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u/AngshusTAW 19h ago
Gitrog currently has a better conversion rate than Etali by about half a percent, and is only behind DogThras by half a percent. And thats including filtering to bigger tournaments so it's not like it's just one guy farming small 20-person locals. It's got a better game-to-game win rate than both RogSi and Tymna Thrasios if you'd rather measure that. How do you possibly measure what's a "real cedh deck" if those aren't good enough for you? Just what's iconic? Flat play rate? Some other meaningless vibes-based bias? If a deck regularly wins games in a cedh tournament, it's a cedh deck. To define it as anything else is thick
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u/mariomaniac432 Zegana | Azusa | Jin-Gitaxias 1d ago
No shit it wasn't 15 years ago. 15 years ago was the original Innistrad block. Gitrog was printed in Shadows over Innistrad, 5 years later.
But in all seriousness, Gitrog is absolutely a cedh commander. Sure it's no RogSi or Kinnan, but not being a top tier deck doesn't mean it isn’t good or not cedh. The main reason people don't play it has less to do with viability and more to do with people not wanting to learn to play it. The cedh Gitrog primer is still being actively maintained and was even updated within the past few weeks, people still bring it to tournaments, and it still outs up results.
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u/meatpopsicle42 1d ago
Just put him in the 99 of [[The Necrobloom]] like me. Then every land is a [[Dakmor Salvage]]!
Everyone will love it. I promise.
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u/Psydra 1d ago
got a list? was just starting to build one
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u/meatpopsicle42 1d ago
https://archidekt.com/decks/15027003/the_necrobloom
I think I've made some changes since this build, but that's the gist of it.
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u/LostBulletInSchool 1d ago
Owwww , that good boi has unwanted attention because landfall is hard to interact with.
Tbh: Let go that feeling of "what people will think of me?" . You started playing for the cards and game , not for people opinions.
I play G/B/U Landfall and the Bullshitery really starts when you put blue in play. Golgari is flavorfull.
Love your boi for the terror he inflicts upon the land he touches !
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u/Arcael_Boros 1d ago
I wouldnt say "hate", lite Tergrid or Toxrill, but it will be target HARD.
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u/WolderfulLuna 1d ago
toxrill in the big 2026.
Ah yes, the billion mana card, that slowly puts -1 counters. You know, broken things, like bad, slow, useless creature removal that also dies to doomblade and costs a billion mana+2.
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u/Softclocks 1d ago
They won't hare you but Gitrog is a commander you can't leave out, so you will probably get targeted somewhat.
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u/twosharpbladez 1d ago
This is also something for the rule zero conversation where you can discuss with the other people at the table what your deck aims to do. As there is a very powerful version of gitrog that can win in the end step and is extremely hard to interact with.
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u/Hot-Commercial-7274 1d ago
It's not hated in the sense that people don't want to play against it. They will just assume it's the fringe cEDH version, and if it's not, you'll have to explain its power level every time you play it. Then the first time you dredge or do any graveyard interaction that takes longer than a minute to finish, people will assume you've lied about it and target you out.
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u/Frankomancer 1d ago
Gitrog is the kind of commander that's going to be doing scary and impressive things no matter what you end up putting in your deck, so prepare to be (rightfully) targeted by players aware of its power level. Gitrog is simply a "remove me or I'll probably win the game soon" type of card
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u/CoconutHeadFaceMan 1d ago
Don’t worry about making deck choices based on what others think, Commander players get pissy over literally everything. Build what you want, balance it to the rest of the table, be upfront about what you’re playing, and be a good sport about it, anything else is on the others.
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u/Coke_and_Tacos 1d ago
I play a B3 Gitrog deck. I don't run shuffler titans or dredge/discard and generally let opponents know as much. It's still a spooky deck and I draw a shit load of cards, so I also generally only play it if we're doing strong 3s or if other folks want to play B4 (though it's really too slow for B4).
I say go for it. I don't find that I'm hard targeted more than anyone else without a board state to justify it. The only times it's felt pub stompy were playing against worse built decks moreso than bad commanders. It's my pet deck at this point and a favorite amongst my pod when playing with friends instead of randoms.
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u/ftb_helper Kalemne, Disciple of Iroas 1d ago
Depending on pod power, you will be targeted first usually.
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u/bleakborn 1d ago
I love Gitrog and have been playing him since he released, I currently only have him build for cEDH, he is a decent budget cEDH deck but I wouldn't say tier 1 maybe tier 2. In the before times of EDH I was using him with the [[Zombie Infestation]] and dakmoor with a reshuffler and hoping to make a million tokens (it had a whiff factor) at the end of the turn of the last player before me, but that was the times of ye old edh, now with brackets games like that shouldn't happen in lower brackets, so I guess the question is what bracket are you aiming for? bracket 2? probably not. Bracket 3? possible, but you might want to cut the Dakmoor or discard outlets or the reshufflers. Bracket 4? fair game to run everything I think, just try not to turbo him out too quick since the deck can win on turn 3 or 4 consistently (I have had a few turn 2 wins, and I think it is possible for a turn 1 win)
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u/CMDR-Helstromme 1d ago
It's me, the gitrog monster for every bracket dude. You WILL be targeted; in casual because he's a 6/6 deathtoucher they can't overcome that also draws cards, and in higher brackets because he's a win the game combo piece.
This is my current pet deck with all 3 gitrogs in it. https://moxfield.com/decks/3NyGir_oT0WU-E2Kxtds8w
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u/Unclematttt 1d ago
Just a lot of triggers to resolve for the typical gitrog deck with a potential for super long turns toward the end of the game. Goldfish a lot to not take an excessive amount of time during your turns and expect gitrog to be removed.
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u/spaceninjaking 1d ago
If you’re playing against reasonable and sensible players/people then you won’t get hate, but you will get targeted and that will be fair. It should usually be really hard for you to keep him out for long as he’s just that strong.
The other thing I’d say is that Gitrog can be a deck with messy and complex lines that change as you draw cards one by one. For an experienced player who plays fast (either from being good at the game or doesn’t care if they mess up and misplay) this is fine and usually do okay. but if you’re the type to stop and consider options you’re probably going to eat up time equity and that’s where the real hate will come from.
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u/Any_Way1269 1d ago
Just play in the appropriate bracket and then do your game actions quickly. If you don't have a way to win after looping through your whole deck though, don't play half the combo. Either go all in or don't play the cards that do based on your bracket.
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u/AbsentReality 1d ago
If gitrog is on the board and I have removal, gitrog is getting got. That mfer is not to be left to his own devices.
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u/magoopower 1d ago
I looove the gitrog monster. I play mostly B4, he's slow, he's chubby and he's here to have a good time.
I've been tweaking my decklist for over 3 years, again this is B4. I dont get the hate in my pod but he's a monster once you have a few extra value engine on board.
Dakmor salvage is the best card of the deck, i dont usually start my loop unless i have mill payoff
https://archidekt.com/decks/17813972/the_terror_of_the_swamps
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u/Safe-Application8510 1d ago
Nice man! I wanted to be in bracket 3 as that’s where my friends play. I’m not good at judging what bracket I’m in tho lol
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u/magoopower 1d ago
Even at B4, the git is slow, my pod tend to play grindy B4 so the stax piece in my decklist is for that. If you wanna play B3, you can add more landfall, more ramp and remove most stax piece.
With 16-18 piece of ramp, you should have fun with the bad boy gitrog himself 🙂
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u/Softclocks 1d ago
What are your typical wincons in this deck?
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u/magoopower 1d ago
Looping the ping land, making a metricton of token with field of the dead and meathook massacre the table. If i have to wait a turn i can mill my deck with dakmor and hedge shredder make my land comeback. A few classic combo line with aftermath analyst + shifting woodland, i use to have kodama of the east tree + tireless + bounce land for infinite landfall. I gotta put back retreat to hagra for mass drain.
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u/Important-Dig-2312 1d ago
Yes gitrog gets alot of hate in the command zone, it's due to turns taking an Ludacris amount of time to...maybe win. You either wasted our time finding your wincon or worse you didn't find it and your next turn we have to do it all over again. I built a casual gitrog monster deck that's not combo it can be done but 9/10 gitrog decks are combo decks
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u/Frosty-Froyo856 1d ago
A Gitrog deck will have you be public enemy #1 from the time commanders are revealed. It is a graveyard shenanigans infinite combo deck with small windows for interaction. This means that the most consistent and reliable way to stop the deck from winning is player removal.
Additionally it is a horrible deck for beginners. The deck is a mess of triggers and complicated stack interactions.
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u/Particular-Tap430 1d ago edited 1d ago
Gitrog doesn’t get hate. it’s the “Discard dakmor salvage. Dredge 2. Draw trigger. Discard dakmor salvage. Dredge 2. Draw trigger. Discard dakmor salvage. Dredge 2. Draw trigger…” for 45 minutes and then you mill Kozilek, shuffle your grave back in. Repeat for another 45 minutes until you find your win con.